20,500 Shares in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Acquired by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 20,500 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $1,249,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Griffon by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,361,000 after acquiring an additional 758 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in Griffon by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 94,300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,741,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in Griffon by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 6,265 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $249,000 after acquiring an additional 1,486 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its holdings in Griffon by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 12,434 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $493,000 after acquiring an additional 1,916 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in Griffon by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 32,801 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,301,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $69.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total value of $134,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,843 shares in the company, valued at $1,269,641.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE GFF opened at $66.53 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.46. The company has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.65 and a beta of 1.41. Griffon Co. has a one year low of $27.45 and a one year high of $75.18. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $69.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.83.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $643.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $595.87 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 72.80% and a net margin of 2.65%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.86 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Griffon Co. will post 4.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.78%.

Griffon Company Profile

Griffon Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides consumer and professional, and home and building products in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Home and Building Products, and Consumer and Professional Products. The Home and Building Products segment manufactures and markets residential and commercial sectional garage doors, rolling steel service doors, fire doors, shutters, steel security grilles, and room dividers for the use in commercial construction and repair, and home remodeling applications.